World’s largest wind turbines are supplying Opus Energy customers

The Burbo Bank wind farm in Liverpool Bay is using 8 MW wind turbines, the largest installed turbines the world has seen to date.

The project is an offshore wind farm in the Irish Sea near Liverpool, a few miles away from the mouth of the River Mersey. As part of a long-term contract with the owners of the wind farm, Opus Energy receives 5.5% of the energy generated at the site which is then supplied to its customers – at no extra cost.

Thanks to the 32 turbine extension project, the Burbo Bank wind farm is now a 258 MW installation which produces enough electricity to power 300,000 homes annually. Prior to the extension, the site had a capacity of 90 MW.

How big?

The extension project is the first in the world to use 8 MW wind turbines, strengthening the UK’s reputation as a world leader in offshore wind, in which we are currently ranked fifth for total cumulative installed capacity.

It is predicted that increasing generation capacity will drastically reduce the cost of wind power by concentrating more powerful turbines on smaller sites. By increasing the span and the height of the turbines, manufacturers can reduce costs across both construction and maintenance – each turbine is 195m tall, while the rotors are a staggering 107m in diameter.

This scale makes the project cheaper to run, as well as ensuring a consistently low KWh electricity price across the lifetime of the wind farm.